Recycled Goods (#34)

by Tom Hull

An excess of jazz this month, something that will happen every
now and then. But I thought it would make more sense to handle the
Impulse anniversary hoo-hah in one big chunk, and the Milestone
samplers intersect at two points. But neither satisfied on their
own terms, sending me back to the shelves for previous iterations.
Then came the task of picking the pick hits -- the album covers
pictured on the side. I've always picked them from the top section,
which should be an easy task given the bounty of A records this
time. But the Rollins I'd pick there is topped by the one in the
briefly noted, so I decided to go with the A+. Then I picked its
match in the Other Impulses.

Maurice El Médioni Meets Roberto Rodriguez: Descarga Oriental:
The New York Sessions (2005 [2006], Piranha):
Cuban music derives first from Africa, from slaves who managed to
preserve their tribal identity and religion through the middle
passage and the long ordeal, but also from Spain. The Spanish
aspect also traces back to Africa, through the Arab, Moorish,
and Jewish melting pot of al-Andalus, roots that not even Torquemada
could stamp out. Algerian pianist El Médioni traces his family tree
to pre-Inquisition Spain, but that affinity matters less than what
Roberto Juan Rodriguez brings to the party. The Cuban percussionist
delved into klezmer after emigrating to Miami, inventing a marvelous
synthesis on El Danzon de Moises and Baila! Gitano Baila!
(both on Tzadik). But where Ashkenazi music had forced him to reach
out, Sephardic music had always been tightly packed into his Cuban
matrix. Here they unpack it.
A-

Allen Ginsberg: First Blues (1972-81 [2006], Water, 2CD):
One of the few people I can fairly describe as a hero in my teenage
years: I had a poster of him that I pasted up above the stairs, so
securely that when I moved away from home my mother, who only knew
that she hated the beard, could only paint over it. I read all of
his poetry -- "Howl" was my imagined life, but "Wichita Vortex Sutra"
hit particularly close to home, not least for its local detail. But
somehow I never knew that he recorded music -- sung even. I knew he
recorded records, and I knew of other poets who ventured into music --
thinking here more of Ed Sanders and Tuli Kupferberg than Leonard
Cohen or Rod McKuen, but that was my taste in poetry. So I found
this even more startling than you will. The first surprise is that
the main singer on the 1971 sessions sounds an awful lot like Bob
Dylan. But Ginsberg takes over a few cuts in, and while the music
comes from many places, the words could hardly be anyone else --
good example: "CIA Dope Calypso." Some of this is dated, although
a better word is historical. And some, like "Gay Lib Rag," seems
still pitched far in the future. The booklet provides vital notes
and photos.
A-

Thelonious Monk With John Coltrane: The Complete 1957 Riverside
Recordings (1957 [2006], Riverside, 2CD):
The recently discovered 1957 Monk with Coltrane At Carnegie Hall
(Blue Note) swept nearly all jazz critics lists of 2005's best records.
Previously known recordings of the two together were limited to a cruddy
Live at the Five Spot tape (released by Blue Note) and parts of
three studio albums on Riverside. This reshuffles the Riversides to
cash in on the interest, weeding out cuts without Coltrane, adding false
starts and a beside-the-point Gigi Gryce blues with Coltrane, sprucing
up the documentation. Whether this is a good idea may depend on your
level of interest. The June 25-26 septet sessions appear on Monk's
Music, an indispensible item in Monk's catalog -- more impressive
than split up over two discs here, larded with less essential music.
Most of the extras appeared well after the fact as Thelonious Monk
With John Coltrane, while the trio version of "Monk's Mood" ends
the otherwise solo Monk Himself. I'm ambivalent myself, but
it's hard to dock the music.
A-

Re-Bop: The Savoy Remixes (1945-59 [2006], Savoy
Jazz):
Seems like every major jazz catalog company has set up deals with
DJs to reprocess their wares -- I guess Fantasy (er, Concord) is
the holdout, but they packaged all the old soul jazz they could
find as The Roots of Acid Jazz, so I wouldn't bet against
them following this trend. Whether this works or not depends more
on the DJs than on the venerable master sources, and any time you
mix a dozen of each you're likely to get hits and misses. (Compare
the Jazzanova vs. the Mizell Brothers, a formula that misses more
consistently.) The simplest approach is to take a sample -- a bit
of Dizzy Gillespie trumpet or Milt Jackson vibes -- and rep it
until you can dance to it. Slightly
more complicated is gussying up Sarah Vaughan's "Lover Man" or
rewiring Charlie Parker's "Koko." Still, what's preserved from the
jazz is incidental: my favorite here is Boots Riley's cartoonish
remix of "Shaw 'Nuff," even though it leaves out one of Parker's
all-time great solos.
B+

Sonny Rollins: Milestone Profiles (1972-2001
[2006], Milestone):
The first half of Newk's career was turbulent, with several gaps
when he broke off and regrouped, including six years from when he
left Impulse to his signing with Milestone. He spent the second
half touring, where he was notoriously hot and cold -- breathtaking
one night, unsettled the next. His albums, roughly one per year,
were quickly tossed off, inconsistent with flashes of brilliance.
Gary Giddins tried to point these out in a review of a mix tape
he imagined. Milestone wanted to release a set to honor Rollins'
25th anniversary with the label, so they compiled Giddins' list
as Silver City -- as magnificent as Saxophone Colossus
or Way Out West or any of his other classics. Which should
make this single -- the second disc in the package is a worthless
label sampler -- redundant, but Rollins never rests on his past:
three of nine songs appeared in the decade after Silver City,
and they fit in seamlessly. No surprise really. Rollins is easy
to anthologize: his sound is unique but consistent across decades,
he totally dominates everyone he plays with, and his refuses to
fall back on himself, so he never slips to cliché.
A

Ska Bonanza: The Studio One Ska Years (1961-65
[2006], Heartbeat, 2CD):
Studio One's best-ofs focus more on the reggae years, but C.S.
"Coxsone" Dodd's real heyday was in the early '60s, when Jamaica
celebrated its independence by inventing ska. Jamaican music
offers some rough parallels with Afro-American music: soul maps
to rocksteady and reggae, disco and funk to dancehall, hip-hop
came from dub and turned into ragga. Ska is nothing less than
Jamaican doo-wop: studio bands and vocal groups, a pattern that
survived into the dancehall era, only the instrumentals remained
in vogue much longer than in America. Dodd's band recorded as the
Skatalites as well as under individual names -- Don Drummond's
"Man in the Street," leading off the second disc here, is the
perfect ska instrumental. Next up are two vocal group debuts:
the Wailers' "Simmer Down" and the Maytals' "Shining Light" --
that's Bob Marley and Toots Hibbert, folks.
A

A User Guide to They Might Be Giants (1986-2002
[2005], Elektra/Rhino):
Taking their name from a too-clever-by-half George C. Scott movie,
probably because it is so clever, John Flansburgh and John Linnell
popped up in 1986 with their eponymous album: eighteen songs, each
a brilliant tooling of some small hook with a clever twist. It was
a barrel of wit, a tour de force. Never again did they wait long
enough to come up with such a consistently amazing set, but that's
what best-ofs are for. Three songs here from that first album still
stand out, but 26 more from the better part of two decades hence
sidle in beside them, most equally clever, some quite astonishing.
Choice cut: a science lecture set to cartoon music, "Why Does the
Sun Shine? (The Sun Is a Mass of Incandescent Gas)."
A

Neil Young: Greatest Hits (1969-91 [2004], Reprise):
"Greatest hits inclusion based on original record sales, airplay,
and known download history." Fair enough, even if that means that
eleven of sixteen songs date from 1969-71, before he started to get
really interesting. I haven't played those early albums in ages, so
I'm all the more struck by how precise their songs sound. As for the
voice and the guitar, you know them instantly, and you know that he's
managed to turn those objectively flawed, rather weird, instruments
into things of extraordinary beauty. He did that all himself. Only
one song here since 1979, but trust me, he's still doing it.
A

In Series

I'm not sure why Universal Music Group, the current owner of the
Impulse! jazz brand, decided to make such a big deal out of the
label's 45th anniversary. Most anniversary seekers hold out for a
nice round number like 50, but maybe they just wanted to practice,
or maybe they were just hard up for product. In any case, they've
released a 4-CD box set, a single CD distillation, and ten single
artist compilations, with one exception -- a recent Alice
Coltrane album -- released during the label's 1961-77 active period.
Also tied in is a book by Ashley Kahn, The House That Trane Built:
The Story of Impulse Records.

The focus on John Coltrane isn't arbitrary, but it isn't quite
true either. With 28 LPs, including posthumous discoveries but not
counting compilations, Coltrane was Impulse's most prolific artist.
His margin of importance was even greater: he bloomed late and died
early, with almost all of his reputation built from 1959-67 -- two
years on Atlantic starting with Giant Steps, followed by six
on Impulse peaking in 1964 with A Love Supreme, one of the
few universally acknowledged jazz masterpieces. But to say Trane
built the label isn't right. Impulse wasn't a small independent on
the cutting edge. No, the label was set up by ABC in 1961 as a jazz
subsidiary to compete with fellow megamedia majors RCA (NBC) and
Columbia (CBS). Creed Taylor is credited as Impulse's founder, but
the famed producers was just an employee, soon lured away to run
Verve, Norman Granz's label recently acquired by MGM.

Taylor's successor at Impulse was Bob Thiele, another famed jazz
producer. The Impulse operation was well funded and professional,
all the way down to the designers who came up with the bright orange
LP spines that made the albums stand out on your shelves. The roster
was flush with legends, at least early on: Count Basie, Duke Ellington,
Art Blakey, Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Carter, Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster,
Sonny Rollins, Charles Mingus. But none off that list lasted more than
three albums. Coltrane was the one who stuck, and evolved, eventually
moving to the far fringes of the avant-garde, and other avant artists
followed: Archie Shepp, Pharoah Sanders, Marion Brown, Dewey Redman,
Sam Rivers, Sun Ra. The jazz market declined in the '70s, and the label
stopped recording new material in 1977. The catalog was passed on to
MCA, which merged into Universal's Verve Music Group. The brand name
was briefly revived in 1987-88 for Michael Brecker, then again 1995-98
for a dozen releases, including more Brecker, and in 2004 for an Alice
Coltrane record. But mostly it rests on its laurels, featured here
again.

One more note: Single-artist jazz compilations are often less
attractive than individual albums, usually because they're torn
between being exemplary and representative of scattered bodies
of work, which works against the flow and consistency that most
jazz albums achieve. So for several artists below I also offer
some alt-choices: individual albums, each A- or better, often
recommended over the compilation.

Albert Ayler: The Impulse Story (1965-69 [2006],
Impulse): The patron saint of the avant-garde, a fearsome saxophonist
invoking the holy ghost; earlier work on ESP, like Spiritual Unity,
is essential; this is for the curious, a useful sampler into his last
scattered years, as his pursuit of the healing force of the universe
ultimately led him to bagpipes.
B+

Gato Barbieri: The Impulse Story (1973-75 [2006],
Impulse): Argentine tenor saxophonist, emerged in the '60s on ESP
and Flying Dutchman, which has some classic examples of his whirling
dervish style; this excerpts four albums of Coltrane-ish powerhouse
sax over roiling Latin beats; alt choice: his first two "chapters"
rolled up as Latino America (1973-74 [1997], 2CD).
B+

Alice Coltrane: The Impulse Story (1968-2000 [2006],
Impulse): Née Alice MacLeod, plays piano and harp, married the tenor
sax great in 1965, recorded seven albums 1968-73 after her husband's
death, then a comeback with son Ravi Coltrane after a long hiatus,
developed a major interest in Eastern spirituality that themed her
music; two trio pieces with Rashied Ali -- one on harp, the other on
piano -- are most striking here, with her larger groups spacier, and
a slab of Stravinsky a little heavy-handed.
B+

John Coltrane: The Impulse Story (1961-67 [2006],
Impulse): So influential we might as well call the last forty years
the post-Coltrane era, but far less so before he moved to Impulse --
his earlier Atlantics are respected, as are his sessions with Miles
and Monk, but a lot of his early work is so-so; this has to cover
a lot of ground, some pretty far out, most worth exploring as much
greater length; alt-choices: The Complete Africa/Brass Sessions
(1961, 2CD); The Complete 1961 Village Vanguard Recordings
(1961, 4CD); Ballads (1962); Live at Birdland (1963);
Crescent (1964); A Love Supreme (1964); Plays
(1965); the complete quartet studio recordings are also in the giant
The Classic Quartet (1961-68, 8CD).
A-

Keith Jarrett: The Impulse Story (1973-76 [2006],
Impulse): The most productive years of Jarrett's career, with eight
albums by his American quartet -- Dewey Redman, Charlie Haden, Paul
Motian -- on Impulse, plus his European quartet and marathon solos
on ECM; this sampler should provide a useful distillation given
that most of the Impulses are only available on two boxes adding
up to nine CDs, but a better one would focus more squarely on
Redman's tenor sax, who sounds great when he gets the chance.
B+

Charles Mingus: The Impulse Story (1963 [2006],
Impulse): A case of doing what you can with what you got, which
ain't much; Mingus cut three albums for Impulse in 1963: one was
difficult and challenging but brilliant, another was typically
first rate, and one solo piano -- not bad if you're curious;
this gives you a bit of each, making it useless; alt-choices:
The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady (1963); Mingus
Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus (1963).
B-

Sonny Rollins: The Impulse Story (1965-66 [2006],
Impulse): Another slim slice from an all-time great, three albums
in the gap between his sporadic '60s work at RCA and his long tenure
with Milestone, but useful -- two good albums not real high on the
pecking order, and 25 minutes of East Broadway Run Down, his
most avant album ever; alt-choices: On Impulse (1965), and
the Oliver Nelson-arranged Alfie (1966), where a relatively
large band lets Newk call all the shots.
A-

Pharoah Sanders: The Impulse Story (1963-73
[2006], Impulse): Coltrane's first important disciple, reflected
in sound and style, but more importantly in direction, which
deflected from out only to orbit the earth, taking particular
interest in Africa and Asia; four cuts may not seem like much
of a selection, but "The Creator Has a Master Plan," all 32:45,
the ugly along with the transcendent, is in better company here
than on Karma.
A-

Archie Shepp: The Impulse Story (1964-72 [2006],
Impulse): Aside from Coltrane, Shepp was the most important figure
to emerge on Impulse; more orthodox than Pharoah Sanders, possessing
an authoritative but unpretty tone, he worked the inside of the
avant-garde, and cultivated a black power consciousness leading
to attempts to bridge gospel, soul and free jazz; the best disc
in this series, because it pulls his disparate pieces together
as a whole in a way that the albums don't; alt-choices: Four
for Trane (1964); Fire Music (1965), Attica
Blues (1972).
A-

McCoy Tyner: The Impulse Story (1962-64 [2006],
Impulse): The pianist was 21 when he joined Coltrane, shortly
before Coltrane signed with Impulse; his first records under
his own name were the piano trios that figure large here, but
this is also fleshed out with cuts from other folks' records --
Coltrane, Elvin Jones, Art Blakey; not all that well balanced,
but it has some moments, including quite a bit of piano.
B+

The House That Trane Built: The Best of Impulse Records
(1961-76 [2006], Impulse): I don't know how to rate something like this,
where the choices are so broad and arbitrary one might as well be
listening to the radio; nine songs, all also on the 4-CD box, five
also on the artist comps, two more on my Other Impulses list, which
leaves nice work by Art Blakey and John Handy -- the latter funktoon
is actually a clever finale.
A-

Other Impulses

As best I've been able to count, Impulse released 276 albums and
64 compilations during its 1961-77 run. The artists the compilers
chose to remember are a small subset. The omissions include lesser
artists who recorded more than the 3-album minimum of Mingus and
Rollins, and who might benefit from consolidation: Marion Brown,
Mel Brown, Chico Hamilton, Ahmad Jamal, Yusef Lateef, Oliver Nelson,
Sam Rivers, Shirley Scott, Gabor Szabo, Michael White -- not that
I'm sure about that whole list. Also omitted are major artists who
only recorded an album or two -- some brilliant. To fill out the
picture, I went back to my shelves and found these gems that round
out the Impulse picture:

Benny Carter: Further Definitions: The Complete Further
Definition Sessions (1961-66 [1997], Impulse): Two albums,
the first with Coleman Hawkins reprising and extending their 1937
session that produced "Crazy Rhythm" and "Honeysuckle Rose"; the
later Additions to Further Definitions, without Hawkins,
fits on the disc, and isn't too much of a letdown.
A

Gil Evans: Out of the Cool (1960 [1996], Impulse):
And out of the closet, a prime example of Miles Davis's favorite
arranger texturing and layering a large band into a sum where all
parts are one.
A-

Coleman Hawkins: Today and Now (1962 [1996],
Impulse): Starts with a "Go Li'l Liza" that's so appealing that
every subsequent move, slow or fast, light or heavy, just adds
to the pleasure.
A

Earl Hines: Once Upon a Time (1966 [2003], Impulse):
A royal affair, the Earl takes Duke's band out for a spin, grinning
like a kid at the wheel of a shiny new Cadillac; Johnny Hodges plays
pretty, and Cat Anderson does handstands on trumpet.
A-

Johnny Hodges: Everybody Knows Johnny Hodges (1964-65
[1992], Impulse): Ellington's star, the very model of what alto sax
should sound like, with his usual bandmates in a reprise of the small
group spinoffs he led in the '40s.
A+

Oliver Nelson: Blues and the Abstract Truth (1961
[1995], Impulse): A rare arranger's record that connects on all levels,
partly because the blues framework is so solid, but mostly because
the musicians excel individually as well as together -- Eric Dolphy
and Freddie Hubbard stand out, and Bill Evans is a surprise.
A

Shirley Scott: Queen of the Organ (1964 [1993],
Impulse): Few artists recorded more with Impulse than Scott, who
totalled nine albums; one of her best, befitting the title, with
husband Stanley Turrentine deep and soulful.
A-

Sonny Stitt/Paul Gonsalves: Salt and Pepper
(1963 [1997], Impulse): One of Stitt's many sax jousts, unusual
for the dapper Ellingtonian opposite, who has a few tricks of
his own to call on.
A-

Lucky Thompson: Tricotism (1956 [1993], Impulse):
Two albums recorded by Creed Taylor for ABC before Impulse was
founded, this one was rescued from the closet, providing one of
the tenor saxophonist's finest examples of swing to bop and back
again.
A

Ben Webster: See You at the Fair (1964 [1993],
Impulse): That would be the New York World's Fair, in one of
the Brute's last American albums before removing himself to
Copenhagen.
A-

Briefly Noted

Cream: Gold (1966-68 [2005], Polydor/Chronicles,
2CD): British power trio, the obvious link between blues-rock and
heavy metal, but Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce were closet jazzmen,
as inclined to improvise as to rock out, leaving Eric Clapton to
steady the ship; splitting their work into studio and live discs
seems like the right idea, but both run slightly thin.
B+

Delaney & Bonnie: Home (1968-69 [2006],
Stax): The original Americana group, coming up with a mature
synthesis of blues, country, gospel, and rock 'n' roll with
amiable husband-and-wife voices and a growing cadre of friends;
this was recorded before but released after their more polished
The Original Delaney & Bonnie: Accept No Substitute
(Elektra, reissued on Collectors' Choice), and shows some of
the usual growing pains, aggravated by six "bonus" cuts.
B+

The Very Best of DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince
(1986-93 [2006], Jive/Legacy): Jeff Townes' scratches seem as corny
now as Will Smith's standup, and they're dated now to the stretch
between old style and gangsta when rap threatened to break out into
the mainstream; it still has that loose-limbed goofiness, especially
in the Summertime.
B+

Allen Ginsberg: Kaddish (1964 [2006], Water):
More like I expected a Ginsberg record to be: the poet reading
one of his longest poems, a hard-eyed, rough-tongued elegy for
his late mother Naomi; a writer, not an actor, it takes a while
for Ginsberg to find a voice that works, his occasional attempts
at dramatization hit and miss; but the words never let up, even
running long at 63:45.
B+

Joe Henderson: Milestone Profiles (1967-75
[2006], Milestone): One of the all-time great tenor sax soloists,
Henderson is famed for his early Blue Notes and his big comeback
on Verve in the '90s, but he wasn't marking time in between; his
Milestone records may have been inconsistent -- haven't checked
the 8-CD box, but surely it's de trop -- but he's in top form
on this wide-ranging selection.
A-

Mahala Raï Banda (1999-2004 [2005], Crammed Discs):
Electro-gypsy from the ghettos around Bucharest, roughly the same
general phenomena as Brazil's favela booty beats, but with accordion,
cymbalum and and lots of tuba-heavy brass.
B+

Boban Markovic Orkestar feat. Marko Markovic: The Promise
(2005 [2006], Piranha): Subtitled "the king of Balkan brass" -- not sure
if that refers to the band, which counts eight horns, its reigning trumpet
master Boban, or his son, the featured 18-year-old Marko; in any case,
the sheer brass power and virtuosic flights are hard to argue with, but
the Gypsy swing was more evident on the previous Boban I Marko,
or maybe that was just the element of surprise.
B+

Freddie McGregor: Bobby Bobylon (1980 [2006],
Heartbeat): On the scene since he was a teenager, McGregor's first
album for C.S. Dodd was his breakthrough, a thoroughly compelling
mix of roots, reggae, and recycled riddims -- many songs had been
retooled from early hits to give them a contemporary political
edge; with eight bonus tracks, ending with Jackie Mittoo's long
vamp on the title track.
A-

Jackie McLean: It's Time (1964 [2006], Blue Note):
The alto saxist set his destination for out the year before; this
group is more rooted in hard bop, but McLean pushes them hard, even
getting some abstract comping from Herbie Hancock; the newcomer is
trumpeter Charles Tolliver, who writes three pieces, including the
soft closer.
B+

Prince Far I: Heavy Manners: Anthology (1977-83
[2003], Trojan/Sanctuary, 2CD): Born Michael James Williams, a DJ
whose gravel voice declaimed rasta righteousness amidst torrents
of dub echo; Joe Gibbs produced his breakthrough, starting a run
that was stopped by a bullet six years later; this is exhaustive,
and in the end transcendent.
A-

Re-Bop: The Savoy Originals (1945-59 [2006],
Savoy Jazz): Existing only for neophytes to map the remixes back,
these songs were selected for their parts, which makes them an
exceptionally arbitrary label sampler -- how else do you explain
two cuts from a Curtis Fuller album, or three cuts with mallets?
Still, the selections can surprise, as when Herbie Mann turns out
to be Phil Woods, or when Dizzy Gillespie gives way to Stuff Smith.
B

Sonny Rollins: Silver City (1972-95 [1996],
Milestone, 2CD): A robust sample of 25 years on Milestone, ordered
up with a keen ear by Gary Giddins -- nothing like a great critic
for a task like this; two hours-plus of constant, jaw-dropping
astonishment.
A+

Candy Licker: The Sex & Soul of Marvin Sease
(1994-2005 [2006], Jive/Legacy): A southern soulman retro enough to
wind up in Malaco's blues stable, Sease's typical cornbread is tasty
enough, but his crunk is mere novelty; of course, it doesn't help
that this one-label comp didn't bother to license the notorious
10-minute original of the title song; instead we get a sequel and
a live remake.
B+

Jimmy Smith: Milestone Profiles (1981-93 [2006],
Milestone): His Blue Notes, starting in 1956, made the Hammond B3
the fulcrum of soul jazz, as well as setting the standard against
which Larry Young and others would develop; but he settled into
a groove which sustained him at Verve and later at Milestone;
nothing new here, most songs are live remakes of earlier hits,
some even with Stanley Turrentine and Kenny Burrell.
B+

McCoy Tyner: Milestone Profiles (1972-80 [2006],
Milestone): This was his third label period, following stints on
Impulse and Blue Note, the '70s consolidated his reputation both
as a star pianist and as a composer with broad interests; what's
most striking here is how hard the piano sounds -- one solo and
two trio pieces are crashingly loud, while the horns on the rest
are hard pressed to keep up, even when they go into late-Coltrane
overload; it's like he's trying not to do fusion but to beat it
to death.
B+

Funky Beat: The Best of Whodini (1983-96 [2006],
Jive/Legacy): A second tier '80s rap group from Brooklyn -- only two
cuts here come after 1987 -- and they sound like it: hard old style
beats and scratches, comps borrowed from Afrika Bambaataa, lyrics
that don't aspire to be more than functional -- "Five Minutes of
Funk" is still their claim to fame.
B+